Sci-Fi & Fantasy Girlz discussion

http://www.notyetread.com/2014/10/wom...

Thought this was an interesting article. Anyone got good examples?

The female protagonists in CURSE OF CHALION are best friends.

Skipping over the meta-comment that it makes that it's so hard to even think of immediate answers to what should be a simple question, I am having a hard time thinking of any even from authors I usually think of as having solid women characters. Most relationships that immediately spring to mind are either family or romantic relationships in some way. Even books that have women with strong friendships are almost all between women and men or women as part of a group (like in a military setting, lone specialist that's 'one of the boys' kind of thing)

Granted, I probably just need to read more, but the only books I can think of off the top of my head would be the Gina Harwood novels and even then Gina and Charlie's relationship is more of a grudging respect kind of thing.

There were strong friendships mentioned in books like Moving Mars and the Mars trilogy and it seems like something that would be Dragon Riders of Pern but it's been so long since I read them I'm not sure.

I have a pair of female friends in my last novel but two. It is particularly fun because my heroine slept with the guy, some years before he marries the friend and she marries someone else. (My protagonists tend to be happily married.)

I'm reading Tales of Nevèrÿon that I find profoundly feminist, and he doesn't forget women's friendships in his efforts. Fabulous book.

Mine had a romance but it was a strong friendship, and two other friendships. That was something I wanted to show, women helping and being friends and loving women.

I've written female friendships into my current books - developing friendships - and also male/female friendships. I did it deliberately, partly to show that normal life has normal friendship, even if it's on another planet, and partly because the real world has friendships that aren't, and never will be, romantic ones.

I'd like to think that not every female protagonist needs to be defined by her relationship to a male love interest.

She has some very good points. It actually feels quite lonely when you get a strong female character ... who is all alone. I mean, you can totally write introvert female characters because I've never seen any, to be honest (but still, even introverts like me want friends!)

Anyway, also going for some awesome friendships between women in my upcoming nanowrimo novel. (Aiming essentially for 'I thought they were sisters...')

And it is not like real life. Women like to acquire friends, either in the flesh or on line. Even in quite male-dominated organizations like the US Army -- all the female officers know each other and are buds. Unless you really are the only female around for miles, you will acquire companionship.

Jo Walton has written some good examples, I think. In My Real Children and Farthing.

Or her dragon book. All the females are of course dragons, but they are dear friends.

I'll have to check out the books mentioned in here :) I wonder if there's any unconscious fear in authors that readers don't want to here 'girl talk' or something like that and that conflict is more interesting. As the article points out there isn't much problem writing male characters that are dynamic friends.

Yeah, girl cooties multiply with the number of girls, clearly.

It really is even more strange in SFF where you can have magic and aliens and all kinds of new ideas that haven't already been shoehorned into one of the 'girls' or 'boys' categories that... you'd think... would make it easier to create those kinds of dynamics. Plus, cootie repellent.

J.S. wrote: "It really is even more strange in SFF where you can have magic and aliens and all kinds of new ideas that haven't already been shoehorned into one of the 'girls' or 'boys' categories that... you'd ..."

That sentence is useful in a number of contexts. "It really is even more strange in SFF where you can have magic and aliens and all kinds of new ideas..." and yet you can't have ______ (women/black people/queer people/etc) without people crying foul.

The two main female characters in https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6... grew up together, went to school together (along with the husband of the married friend) and love each other like sisters.

This article makes a really good point. I would love to see more female friendships in the fantasy books I read, but sadly they are all too rare.

I’m trying to think of some examples that I’ve come across (books where the friend exists simply to support the protagonist through her romantic dilemmas don’t count!) There were quite a few strong friendships between women in Jordan’s Wheel of Time series, but unfortunately I found most of his female characters irritating and unrealistic...

Even the Confessors?

Amber wrote: "Even the Confessors?"

Do you mean the Aes Sedai? Or is this another group of women that I haven’t come across yet? (I admit I only got up to the end of Book 8)

Louisa wrote: "Amber wrote: "Even the Confessors?"

Do you mean the Aes Sedai? Or is this another group of women that I haven’t come across yet? (I admit I only got up to the end of Book 8)"

Whichever books were used as the basis for the TV series LEGEND OF THE SEEKER... . (Richard Rahl)

That was Terry Goodkind’s ‘Sword of Truth’ books (another series that spans over 10 volumes, I believe — I never got to the end because I found the content of the books too disturbing). I haven’t seen the TV series so I can’t comment, I’m afraid.

Judging from the reviews, Goodkind's books seem to have lots and lots of problems which make me stay away from them. Woow.
I only saw some episodes of the TV series. It was ... okay, I guess? It was hard to tell what it was about since for an epic quest there was too little quest and too much 'I have to help people along the way' and 'my brother is weird and if he dies I would be king' if I remember that correctly.

Louisa wrote: "That was Terry Goodkind’s ‘Sword of Truth’ books (another series that spans over 10 volumes, I believe — I never got to the end because I found the content of the books too disturbing). I haven’t s..."

That's the one I was thinking of.

Sparrowlicious: Ditto.